Note 1. Margaret Ley was daughter of Sir James Ley (15521629), Lord High Treasurer (1622), and Lord President of the council (1628), in which year he was created Earl of Marlborough. [back]

Note 2. Dishonest: the word is here used in the sense of the Latin inhonestus. [back]

Note 3. Chaeronea: where the combined forces of Thebes and Athens were destroyed by Philip of Macedon, B.C. 338. [back]

Note 4. Killed with report that Old man eloquent: Isocrates, the Athenian orator died four days after the disaster of Chaeronea; and as Ley died four days after the dissolution of Parliament, Milton makes a poetical comparison between the fate of the two men. [back]